ANGRY allotment holder Lynton Elcocks is blaming boulders and stones left by council contractors for his greenhouse being smashed by vandals.

Green-fingered Lynton has been a member of the Shrivenham Road Allotments for over five years and during this time, he has never experienced any problems of criminal damage.

But before Christmas, the 56-year-old, who lives in nearby Manor Farm Lane, discovered all of the windows in his beloved greenhouse had been smashed and believes it is connected to Swindon Borough Council's work on the adjacent cycle path as part of their Eastern Flyer project to improve pedestrian-cycle links.

After forking out £150 for it to be replaced, Lynton was horrified to discover that tragedy had struck again this week.

“I complained after Christmas because there was lots of debris lying around and then only a few days later my green house got smashed," the medical engineer explained.

“Nearly every panel of glass was destroyed back then and this time the cost is looking to be around £100.

“This time they have finished the path but there is lots of rubble around and they haven’t tidied up the area in my opinion and there are pieces of brick and boulders around that are about a foot wide. It is lucky that the green house is only smashed because the size of the bricks there could have easily buckled the whole structure.

“It could have been kids or even adults who smashed the glass but either way it isn’t right."

Lynton, who is a keen gardener, said he feels like his complaints to council have fallen on deaf ears in trying to get them to remove the waste and believes if it is not sorted soon, another allotment holder could fall victim to another incident of vandalism.

“It just seems like there is a catalogue of errors," he added. "They haven’t tidied up the area properly and it has been like that for a considerable amount of time. I complained about the CCTV in the area as well because it was pointing in the other direction of the allotments so didn’t pick up what happened but they’ve since said more would be installed.

“This time of the year I go out there once a week and I had a lot of stuff in the greenhouse which will be ready to plant around March time. But now I’ve lost all of that because of what has happened.”

A Swindon Borough Council spokesman said: “We sympathise with Mr Elcocks as it must have been very distressing to see his greenhouse targeted in this manner. However, it is disappointing the council is being criticised for what is a clear act of vandalism.

“The canal path is being upgraded as part of the work to create the new Eastern Flyer pedestrian-cycle path. The lighting along the path has already been improved and we are assessing if it is feasible to install CCTV cameras on the existing lighting columns, which will hopefully act as a further deterrent to anti-social behaviour.”

Wiltshire Police have confirmed they are investigating the matter.